Eleventh Circuit Conservatives Split on Gun Sales to Young Adults: Pryor v. Brasher in NRA v. Bondi

Abstract

Legal debates between leftists and conservatives are rarely as interesting as “intramural” debates between conservatives. The Eleventh Circuit’s recent en banc decision in National Rifle Association v. Bondi illustrates the point. By a vote of 8-4, the court held that a Florida statute prohibiting the purchase of firearms by individuals between the ages of 18 and 21 does not violate the Second Amendment. The majority opinion was written by Chief Judge William H. Pryor, Jr., while Judge Andrew L. Brasher wrote the principal dissent. Both are able and principled jurisprudential conservatives, and Judge Brasher is a former law clerk for Chief Judge Pryor.

The dispute between these judges, which was solely about the proper application of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Bruen (2022) and Rahimi (2024), illustrates the problematic nature of that Court’s novel history-and-tradition test.

Keywords: history-and-tradition test, 2nd Amendment, Second Amendment, Bruen, Rahimi, National Rifle Association v. Bondi, NRA v. Bondi

JEL Classification: K1, K10, K19, K42